Here’s the REAL reason we have mass shootings

Mar 21, 2018

March 20, 2018
Walter E. Williams
Displayed with permission from The Daily Signal

One of the unavoidable tragedies of youth is the temptation to think that what is seen today has always been. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in our responses to the recent Parkland, Florida, massacre.

Part of the responses to those murders are calls to raise the age to purchase a gun and to have more thorough background checksâ€”in a word, to make gun purchases more difficult. Thatâ€™s a vision that sees easy gun availability as the problem; thus, the solution is to reduce that availability.

The vision that sees â€œeasyâ€ availability as the problem ignores the fact of U.S. history that guns were far more available yesteryear. With truly easy gun availability, there was nowhere near the gun mayhem and murder that we see today.

Iâ€™m tempted to ask those who believe that guns are todayâ€™s problem whether they think that guns were nicer yesteryear.

What about the calls for bans on the AR-15 so-called assault rifle? It turns out that, according to 2016 FBI statistics, rifles accounted for 368 of the 17,250 homicides in the U.S. that year. That means restrictions on the purchase of rifles would do little or nothing for the homicide rate.

Leaders of the gun control movement know this. Their calls for more restrictive gun laws are part of a larger strategy to outlaw gun ownership.

Gun ownership is not our problem. Our problem is a widespread decline in moral values that has nothing to do with guns. That decline includes disrespect for those in authority, disrespect for oneself, little accountability for anti-social behavior, and a scuttling of religious teachings that reinforced moral values.

Letâ€™s examine elements of this decline.

If any of our great-grandparents or even grandparents who passed away before 1960 were to return, they would not believe the kind of personal behavior all too common today. They wouldnâ€™t believe that youngsters could get away with cursing and assaulting teachers. They wouldnâ€™t believe that some school districts, such as Philadelphiaâ€™s, employ more than 400 school police officers.

During my primary and secondary schooling, from 1942 to 1954, the only time one saw a policeman in school was during an assembly period where we had to listen to a boring lecture on safety. Our ancestors also wouldnâ€™t believe that weâ€™re now debating whether teachers should be armed.

There are other forms of behavior that would have been deemed grossly immoral yesteryear. There are companies such as National Debt Relief, CuraDebt, and LendingTree, which advertise that they will help you to avoid paying all the money you owe. So after you and a seller agree to terms of a sale, if you fail to live up to your half of the bargain, there are companies that will assist you in ripping off the seller.

There are companies that counsel senior citizens on how to shelter their assets from nursing home care costs. For example, a surviving spouse may own a completely paid-for home thatâ€™s worth $500,000. The costs of nursing home care might run $50,000 a year.

By selling her house, she could pay the nursing home costs, but her children wouldnâ€™t inherit the house. There are firms that come in to shelter her assets so that she can bequeath her home to her heirs and leave taxpayers to foot the nursing home bill.

In my book, thatâ€™s immoral, but it is so common that most of us give it no thought.

There is one moral failing that is devastating to the future of our nation. That failing, which has wide acceptance by the American people, is the idea that Congress has the authority to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another American. That is nothing less than legalized theft and accounts for roughly three-quarters of federal spending.

For the Christians among us, we should consider that when God gave Moses the commandment â€œThou shalt not steal,â€ he probably didnâ€™t mean thou shalt not steal unless you get a majority vote in the Congress.

The reason for the decline in the unity of the people of the United States has to do with personal identity. The more an individual sees himself/herself as a unique individual, the more division it causes between us all. As Putin himself said in an interview when asked about the difference between the US and Russia, he responded that in Russia, people think about the country whereas in the US people think about themselves, Americans are more focused on their personal pride instead of pride for their nation. Now, OUR ENEMY has slung just about everything they have at us,… Read more »

No, our country was FOUNDED on Individual Liberty. perhaps a visit to the writings of the Founders is in order. They are called the Federalist Papers and the Antifederalist papers, those are the ARGUMENTS in writing of the merits of what was to go into the Constitution. We don’t have to IMAGINE what they were thinking. We can READ what they were thinking. Our Media PRETENDs this wealth of free information does not exist. These are our history. They are free for anyone to read online. They had other writings on their thoughts too, there are letters saved and books… Read more »

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Janet

2 years ago

The fool has said in his heart – There is no God…

I understand that America was built on what are described as Traditional Christian Values. From a foreigner’s viewpoint, we clearly see those standards not being respected or practiced today, – as they once were.

Your best Question to ask about your society would be “Why not?”

Then stop doing the things that brought about this deviation…
Vladimir Putin understands the message of JFK better than today’s America does…”Ask not what…”
Can you fill in the rest without consulting Wiki ?

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Heather Breese

2 years ago

When you have the breakdown of the family unit, you will see the breakdown of society.

JFK was a democrat a socialist serving our country is important but serving our God and our families is first, individualism and strong self identity is the basis for a strong country, we love the country because we love ourselves, we love ourselves because God loved us first. Russians don’t necessarily love Russia-just ask them. If you are forced to love something that is not love

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Tom Lowe

2 years ago

Russians are not forced to love anything. If you think Russians are forced to love their country, then you are sadly mistaken and misinformed.